If Lightbringer was merely a sword – why was it such a great weapon?

We learn of the forging of Lightbringer in Salladhor Saan’s tale. It seems that during the last Long Night’s “darkness” Azor Ahai forged a very important blade, which the Jade Compendium tells us was thrust through the belly of a monster. Further importance is given to this legendary sword as Mel frequently mentions its prophesied return, and how essential it could be in the upcoming war against the Others. The first question about Lightbringer is – how can a single blade possibly be so important against an army of Others and wights? What could possibly be so special about this sword?

First of all, the Legend of Lightbringer indicates that upon being thrust through Nissa Nissa’s heart, the blade was set alight, and presumably burnt without fuel. This fire would have given him a great advantage when fighting Others and their army – the fire would be able to kill wights. We see with Samwell’s smouldering log how easily wights succumb to fire; Lightbringer’s flames would therefore have a functional purpose.

But Lightbringer, as will be discussed, only seems to make sense as a weapon of enormous power if we consider that it could be made from dragonglass. Dragonglass is the only substance we know of that poses a threat to Others. The substance is ordinarily too brittle for battle, but if it could somehow be reinforced, then Lightbringer would be lethal to Others and wights. Lightbringer being able to kill Others and their armies of undead isn’t just desirable, it’s really essential if some kind of hero is to stand against them.

Lightbringer as dragonglass begins to have huge appeal, and it’s in the study of glass candles where we can see why a dragonglass blade would be so essential during the Long Night. Glass candles are made of dragonglass, and we can learn about the magical properties of the substance by looking closely at these candles.

Lightbringer seems to have a flame that doesn’t go out. It must have no need for fuel, and burns without being consumed. When we see Marwyn’s glass candle, this is happening:

“It burns but is not consumed.”

Lightbringer would need to provide a source of light. The Others seem to bring darkness with them, so Azor Ahai needs to be able to see. He needs a torch, and it’s pointed out by Tormund and Mel that when Others arrive, fires will go out due to the ice mist around them. It seems the Others can make it a lot colder and darker than our glimpses of them so far in the text have shown. There may be no light at all, rather continual darkness. Glass candles happen to radiate a very strong, unnatural light:

“The candle was unpleasantly bright”

and

“The light was queer and bright, much brighter than any beeswax or tallow candle.”

Azor Ahai would need a source of heat. The Others can make the environment very cold, and their presence can put fires out. So Azor Ahai need his flame to withstand this cold otherwise he’s likely to freeze. It’s highlighted twice that glass candles have a flame that never flickers:

“the flame never flickered, not even when a draft blew through the open door”

and

“The flame did not flicker, even when Archmaester Marwyn closed the door so hard that papers blew off a nearby table”

Lightbringer would have to be sharp to be an effective sword. There should be hints that dragonglass could be made into a sword. Besides the descriptions of those at the citadel cutting their fingers against the razor sharp edges, we have:

“Torchlight ran along its edge, a thin orange line that spoke of razor sharpness.”

and

“The dragonglass blade was sharper than steel”

and this…

“The candle itself was three feet tall and slender as a sword”

The igniting of Lightbringer has commonalities with the lighting of glass candles. Lightbringer seems to have been set aflame by Nissa’s lifeblood or sacrificial blood magic. On close inspection, glass candles also seem to be lit by blood. It’s possible this needs to be done in ‘a time of magic’ (like the increased wildfire production and the improved firemage, attributed to the birth of dragons by Hallyne and Quaithe respectively). Armen the Acolyte tells us about candidates trying to light these dragonglass candles in a dark room:

“He must spend the night in darkness, unless he can light that candle. Some will try. Often they cut their fingers, for the ridges on the candles are said to be as sharp as razors. Then, with bloody hands, they must wait upon the dawn, brooding on their failure.”

So, people try to light a glass candle do so in the dark, there’s razor sharp edges around the candles, and they cut themselves getting their blood on the candles. Marwyn goes on to light glass candles. If blood is part of the trigger here, we can see why Nissa’s blood could set a dragonglass blade alight – not to mention the magic of ‘true sacrifice’.

Lightbringer would need to be feared by the enemy. As creatures who seem to like cold and darkness, the Others would surely hate a hot, bright, flaming sword made from the one substance known to be lethal to them. Furthermore Lightbringer, in this context, would be the tonic for their camouflage armour. Amidst snow, they would be very hard to even see… unless something could cast their shadows and give away their proximity. Glass candles, it’s pointed out, make very black shadows:

“but the shadows were so black they looked like holes in the world”

and

“It cast strange shadows”

Overall a blade made from dragonglass, if it could somehow be reinforced, would be the perfect weapon against the Others: lethal to both Others and wights and a source of indefinite light and heat during the Long Night. If we imagine Lightbringer as a giant glass candle we can understand why it’s such a hugely important weapon. Dragonglass Lightbringer resolves many of the issues concerning how a single sword could stand against the Others and be so revered.

Finally, we’re told how brittle dragonglass is, it makes a good dagger, it’s sharper than steel, the Children hunted with it, but a large blade would surely break. If Lightbringer was made from dragonglass, it’s to be expected that there would some form of misdirection to put us off the idea. In the Legend of Lightbringer, it’s pointed out that Azor Ahai was making a blade “like none that had ever been”: he was making a new kind of blade, an invention. The first two attempts failed as the blade was very brittle. To remove the brittleness, he tempered the blade with Nissa’s blood and her strength went into the blade. On the third attempt the sword had suddenly lost its brittleness and finally he had a Hero’s blade. Could the Nissa tempering have somehow removed weakness if this sword was made from dragonglass?

It’s also interesting that the Last Hero’s blade was said to be made from Dragonsteel, and also slew Others. The Last Hero was seen to have a broken sword (as we see in the Waymar prologue, standard swords can’t fight Others), and he was searching for the Children for help. Given that mankind seemed to have no weapon against the Others at that point (“no swords could stay their advance”) was the Last Hero seeking the Children to ask how to make an effective weapon? Old Nan’s story tails off before know what help the Hero received, but Bran later asserts that the ending of the story is positive, and he did receive help from the Children. So we have the story of a Hero with a broken sword, then another story with a hero forging a legendary new sword. Both stories seem to be set during the Long Night, and later we’re told that the Last Hero slew Others with a unique blade of mysterious origins, while according to TWoIaF, Azor Ahai put the darkness to rout “with his blazing sword Lightbringer.”

It’s therefore possible that the Last Hero and the Legend of Lightbringer are in fact parts of the same story. It’s notable that the Last Hero’s blade is called Dragonsteel, and Azor Ahai’s blade is named as “steel” three times. The forging of Lightbringer actually distinctly describes the steelmaking process:

“Heat and hammer and fold, heat and hammer and fold”

Could Azor Ahai have been making a crude and unique form of steel, using iron and dragonglass? Is dragonsteel in fact a dragonglass alloy? Steel had not yet been invented (iron was around in the Long Night, as Old Nan states), but Azor Ahai’s blade was “like none that had never been.” Lightbringer was a new invention and an anachronism. Could the Children have advised him and told him about dragonglass, or let him glimpse the future? All of this is possible if Azor Ahai was the Last Hero – a man who had no blade to fight his foe, and in a time of necessity sought the Children, going on to forge a unique blade with which he slew Others. The ‘steel’ anachronisms found in the Lightbringer and Last Hero’s tale might be resolved by the presence of Greenseers. In a story where characters can see the future, anachronisms are perfectly possible.

Overall, Lightbringer could have been a great weapon during the last Long Night, if it was made of dragonglass. Lethal against all foes and perhaps the only source of heat and light for miles on end, this is a weapon that could have been the Others’ achilles heel, and triggered a resistance against their advance. This is why Azor Ahai’s sword was so crucial for the survival of man’s cause that it’s still being discussed thousands of years later, and is even alluded to in the Night’s Watch vows. The World of Ice and Fire makes it clear that the wielder of Lightbringer, Azor Ahai, was known by many names. We suggest that following the Long Night, in Westeros he was simply known as the Last Hero.

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7 Comments

The comparison between the properties of Lightbringer and the glass candles of the Citadel is thought provoking. I can add a few observations of my own on the puzzle.

It’s not clear to me that Marwyn’s glass candle produces heat. I suppose it would be noted if it didn’t. Stannis’ sword cast light but no heat, which is the reason why Aemon thinks Stannis’ Lightbringer is not authentic. However, the sword seems to have an effect on colors similar (but identical? I am not sure) to the glass candles’. Is this effect due to Melisandre, or to the sword? In any case, Melisandre thinks the Wall enhances her magical power.

There might be some truth in the notion that Melisandre brought Lightbringer to Stannis, and it might have nothing to do with the sword. Melisandre doesn’t seem to understand her power, and there is some reason to think that she is someone else’s pawn. Doesn’t she say that Mance would be unknowingly her slave, as long as he wears the ruby she gave him? And she doesn’t realize the implication for the ruby she wears constantly.

The story of the monster slayed by Azor Ahai:

Once Azor Ahai fought a monster. When he thrust the sword through the belly of the beast, its blood began to boil. Smoke and steam poured from its mouth, its eyes melted and dribbled down its cheeks, and its body burst into flame.

(Jon III, ADwD)

Now here is how Varamyr recalls his death by Melisandre’s magic, while he had skinchanged into Orell’s eagle:

Even that had not been so agonizing as the fire in his guts, crackling along his wings, devouring him. When he tried to fly from it, his terror fanned the flames and made them burn hotter. One moment he had been soaring above the Wall, his eagle’s eyes marking the movements of the men below. Then the flames had turned his heart into a blackened cinder and sent his spirit screaming back into his own skin, and for a little while he’d gone mad.

(Prologue, ADwD)

Of course, we can now speculate as to whether Melisandre is another version of Nissa Nissa (she is indeed warm), whether she has in herself the magic that should go into Lightbringer etc. I hold no strong opinion on this.

Bran, I like the way you think! We discussed Mel’s ruby and the possibility that she is bound to someone in our Mel episode. The idea that there is some “Other” power behind her is something worth considering. I’ve also wondered about the monster Azor Ahai slew with the sword, what is it exactly? The description of its death is strikingly similar to the death of Kraznys mo Nakloz in Astapor. Which makes the connection with Orell’s eagle very interesting. If it is purposeful, this chain of connections implies fire magic at work, which brings us back to Melisandre, whom we indeed suspect to be the new Nissa Nissa.

This is a very interesting line of reasoning. Here’s a few extra thoughts… If dragonsteel is an alloy of iron and dragonglass, maybe it is simply the same as Valyrian steel. Isn’t that what Sam and Jon assume? We don’t know how they made it, but using dragonglass to make swords seems very Valyria-like. Maybe all those Valyrian steel blades scattered all over Westeros are just waiting to be lit on fire? Maybe Lightbringer was simply the first of these blades, or the only one that anyone ever managed to set alight? Could we see Jon lighting up Longclaw if his alive still/again in TWoW? Not because Longclaw is any particular Valyrian Steel blade but because it is just that. An alloy of iron and dragonglass.

Hi, and thanks for reading! That’s an interesting point about obsidian being a very “Valyrian” ingredient. And how great would it be if there were multiple lightbringers in Westeros? I’m not sure of the likelihood of it being so, but I could definitely see GRRM chortling into his beard over the arakh lightbringer on Claw Isle 😉

I just listened to the relevant podcast, and I’m now convinced about your Dawn theory. Do you think this means that Dawn will also be the new Lightbringer that AAR will wield or that it will just be a blueprint for the new one?

What would make the most sense to us is that Dawn as LB needs to be re-ignited by AAR, rather than re-created. This would certainly be a great reason for Dawn to be so tantalizingly unique amongst named swords.

I love this theory and indeed love all of your theories. They are so well thought out and resourced. I also love the episode “Fear is For The Long Night”. Since your essay and episode, the show has demonstrated that Longclaw indeed can slay an Other. I do feel that it is partly due to the series “A Game of Thrones” need to streamline plots and events more than what may actually prove true to book canon. However, there may be a grain of truth to it as well.

I am always intrigued with the subject of Dawn, the sword forged from the heart of a fallen star. In ACoK, Bran II, a song called “The Night That Ended” is sung at the harvest feast Bran is presiding over in Winterfell. He thinks of how the men of the Night’s Watch rode forth to meet the Others in the Battle for the Dawn. His thoughts then are of Ned telling him about the kingsguard and the finest knight he ever saw was Ser Arthur Dayne. He then dreams of knights in gleaming armor and swords shining like starfire. While I know this isn’t a literal reference the Battle for The Dawn and all, it is intriguing.

The comet which figures so much in ACoK is often referred to as a dragon or dragon’s tail. Albeit the comet is given several descriptions depending on the POV. But that’s what Old Nan and Osha tell Bran. Perhaps the dragonglass is folded with the iron of a meteorite fallen to earth and that is how dragonsteel is different to Valyrian steel. They both may benefit from spells and dragon flame but the steel is different by where it originated. Of course, they may well be the same. It’s just an idea inspired by you and Yolkboy’s own clever and creative thought processes. Thank you.